British software reseller taking Microsoft to court

A British software reseller has accused Microsoft of abusing its position as a technology giant to persuade enterprises to upgrade to new versions of its products, instead of considering pre-owned alternatives.

ValueLicensing, which buys and resells pre-owned Microsoft software licenses from companies that have upgraded their equipment, said on Thursday it has launched legal action. It is seeking 270 million pounds ($371 million) in damages in the English High Court over its belief the United States company has used its advantage to stifle competition.

Jonathan Horley, ValueLicensing's founder, told the Financial Times competition in the used software market was effectively being restricted by Microsoft's ability to use its position to persuade companies to give up their perpetual licenses in exchange for such things as discounts on new cloud-based software, such as Office 365.